My fleet logged millions of miles on 2 piece wheels until I started making the switch to 22.5 tires in the late 70's. We never had a lock ring to come off in all these miles. We did however have 22.5 tires to suddenly lose air on hard cornering on the steering axle because tubeless wheels of the 70's and earlier did not have a large enough bead seating area. We avoided 3 piece wheels because they were more prone to rust when exposed to salted roads.
We had a lot of guys changing tires in those day that didn't have enough schooling to really be called literate. But they were smart enough to make sure the GG ring was equidistant all the way round the bead. And they knew to check that the the lock ring properly seated. We didn't get a tire cage until we were running 22.5 tires.
I think that anyone who wants to condemn multi piece wheels by nature should read the Goodyear manual carefully. I think it explains why there are failures. It doesn't address the RH-5° wheels. All we used was 7.5 x 20 wheels back in those days and the RH-5° wheels were not built that wide and appeared only on 1 1/2 and 2 ton trucks. They were a bad idea when they came out and they have gotten worse with age.
A lot of the early 19.5 wheels were constructed with a small area for the bead to seat and they were not designed for radial tires.
